Re: [wg-c] Re: IP/TM Concerns & New GTLDs

["Ken Stubbs" <kstubbs@dninet.net>]

i personally feel that much of what both of you said has very good substance
(except for the unnecessary  personal remark at the end ).

i do have a business background (CPA and 25 years business consulting), and
there is a balance here to be considered.

it certainly isnt going to cost anywhere near $20million. i know personally
that  the infrastructure is currently available  (including appropriate
security protection) and the services could  be bid for less than $1.50/year
per domain registered based on volume of 200K/month registrations with a
guaranteed minimum of  $2million/year including approx $300k upfront for
software development.

naturally that includes deference to all time zones with respect to quality
levels of customer service as well.

ken stubbs


----- Original Message --
From: Roeland M.J. Meyer <rmeyer@mhsc.com>
To: Kent Crispin <kent@songbird.com>; <wg-c@dnso.org>
Sent: Monday, August 02, 1999 1:42 PM
Subject: RE: [wg-c] Re: IP/TM Concerns & New GTLDs


> > Behalf Of Kent
> > Crispin
> > Sent: Monday, August 02, 1999 8:54 AM
> >
> > On Mon, Aug 02, 1999 at 02:10:44AM -0700, Roeland M.J. Meyer wrote:
> > [...]
> >
> > > As far as speed of deployment, where will the CASH come
> > from, the ICANN?
> > > Even at five registries, we are talking about over $20MUS
> > in costs. If
> > > they have to be non-profit, with a dictated business model,
> > they will
> > > NEVER come into being.
> > >
> > > In a prior message, I discussed costs of registry operations.
> >
> > Your figures have a number of flaws.  They assume a from-scratch
> > development of a stand-alone proprietary registry.  In fact, of
> > course, the most likely case is that the registry would be an
> > incremental addition to an already existing facility with 24x7 NOC
> > etc.
>
> Now where are you going to find an existing NOC that's going to give you
> their sunk-cost for free?
>
> > Furthermore, even given the pure stand-alone development, your
> > figures are highly inflated.  I agree that in general people costs
> > are frequently underestimated, but you go very, very far in the other
> > direction...
>
> When was the last time you priced out commercial software development
> work in the SF Bay Area? Commercial outfits don't have the luxury of
> grad students working for free/cheap either.
>
> > > > It's important to realize that there are essentially no
> > economies of
> > > > scale to worry about.  I could run a significant registry
> > from my pc
> > > > at home.  This is technical fact.  It isn't widely known,
> > but one of
> > > > the .com/.net/.org TLD servers actually is just a PC --
> > true, it's a
> > > > multiheaded Pentium server with a Gig of memory and lots
> > of fast disk
> > > > and really good network connectivity.  But it's a PC.
> > And that's the
> > > > DNS server, which gets ~2000 hits/sec.  The registry
> > database, as has
> > > > been mentioned before, gets orders of magnitude less
> > traffic than the
> > > > dns server.
> > >
> > > Yes, and who is running it and what is the cost of that data center
> > > context?
> >
> > The server is maintained in an educational institution, I believe;
> > most of the cost of the data center operations and infrastructure
> > are already covered.
>
> In other words, it is stealing infrastructure from other projects, or
> borrowing surplus infrastructure from them. That it is an educational
> institution means that they are not, by definition, under cost
> control/management. Plus, they have tons of free/slave labor, in the
> form of grad-students. That solution does not scale well.
>
> > > What is the fully-burdened cost of that resource? You are
> > > vastly understating that server.
> >
> > Couple of FTEs.  Most of the work is done by one person.
>
> Who administers their salaries, benefits, and other compensation? Who
> manages them? What is their reporting chain and how are they paid? Who
> pays for the power. A/C, and other facilities that are being used? As I
> stated earlier, it is fully burdened asset cost that is important. Also,
> who does customer support and what is that cost? What portion is billed
> against the server?
>
> > > Yes, the whole thing could be run on
> > > two or three racks. But the amount of infrastructure work
> > is awesome,
> > > especially for a proper service offering. The last estimate I put
> > > together priced it out at $2.9M just for the development of
> > the registry
> > > software, not to mention on-going license fees and maintenance.
> >
> > Willie Black developed the registry software for Nominet in his spare
> > time; the original contract for the CORE SRS was $700,000, but the
> > CORE SRS was designed to handle the .com load, and that included all
> > development costs, not just software.
>
> I have yet to see the CORE project deliver on its promised goods and
> services. Where is the code?
>
> > > A sanitized version of that offering is available at
> > > <http://download.dnso.net/dox/politicks/IDNRS.pdf>
> >
> > In general, I agree that people frequently underestimate labor costs,
> > but you would do very well indeed, if you could sucker someone into
> > that.  Eg: 2856 hours for a data modeler -- that's 1.5 years,
> > full-time.  This is *not* a complicated database...
>
> Read the spec again, there is a lot of work involved in the supporting
> accounting infrastructure and other support systems. It is NOT simply
> the registry database. If you think it is so easy then I suggest that
> you do it and publish the DDL, along with the Data Dictionary, for the
> whole thing. If you do it and it works, I'll get you paid for it. Don't
> forget the trigger code, in Oracle8 PL/SQL.
>
> > > > You are vastly overestimating the value of competition at the
> > > > registry level.
> > >
> > > As I think that you are totaly mis-understanding how
> > channel marketing
> > > works. Channel marketing is not competition. Only
> > registries are true
> > > competition. Channel markets are only a means of leveraging
> > the work of
> > > others, for the benefit of the channel operator.
> >
> > Proof by buzzwords?
>
> Those are no more buzzwords than ADR is. It is clear that you do not
> have a business background. Might I suggest "The Portable MBA in
> Marketing" ISBN 0-471-19367-4. For some basic business introduction for
> you.
>
>
>